Witches are imaginary creatures. But in Poland as in Europe and its colonies in the early modern period, people imagined their neighbours to be witches, with tragic results. This book tells the story ...
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Witches are imaginary creatures. But in Poland as in Europe and its colonies in the early modern period, people imagined their neighbours to be witches, with tragic results. This book tells the story of the imagined Polish witches, showing how ordinary peasant women got caught in webs of suspicion and accusation, finally confessing under torture to the most heinous crimes. Through a close reading of accusations and confessions, the book also shows how witches imagined themselves and their own religious lives. Paradoxically, the tales they tell of infanticide and host desecration reveal to us a culture of deep Catholic piety, while the stories they tell of diabolical sex and the treasure-bringing ghosts of unbaptized babies uncover a complex folklore at the margins of Christian orthodoxy. Caught between the devil and the host, the self‐imagined Polish witches reflect the religion of their place and time, even as they stand accused of subverting and betraying that religion. Through the dark glass of witchcraft the book attempts to explore the religious lives of early modern women and men: their gender attitudes, their Christian faith and folk cosmology, their prayers and spells, their adoration of Christ incarnate in the transubstantiated Eucharist and their relations with goblin-like house demons and ghosts.Less

Between the Devil and the Host : Imagining Witchcraft in Early Modern Poland

Michael Ostling

Published in print: 2011-11-01

Witches are imaginary creatures. But in Poland as in Europe and its colonies in the early modern period, people imagined their neighbours to be witches, with tragic results. This book tells the story of the imagined Polish witches, showing how ordinary peasant women got caught in webs of suspicion and accusation, finally confessing under torture to the most heinous crimes. Through a close reading of accusations and confessions, the book also shows how witches imagined themselves and their own religious lives. Paradoxically, the tales they tell of infanticide and host desecration reveal to us a culture of deep Catholic piety, while the stories they tell of diabolical sex and the treasure-bringing ghosts of unbaptized babies uncover a complex folklore at the margins of Christian orthodoxy. Caught between the devil and the host, the self‐imagined Polish witches reflect the religion of their place and time, even as they stand accused of subverting and betraying that religion. Through the dark glass of witchcraft the book attempts to explore the religious lives of early modern women and men: their gender attitudes, their Christian faith and folk cosmology, their prayers and spells, their adoration of Christ incarnate in the transubstantiated Eucharist and their relations with goblin-like house demons and ghosts.

This chapter discusses cases involving male witches in the duchy of Lorraine. Statistical breakdown shows that approximately 28% of the samples were males, who did not fare any better before the ...
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This chapter discusses cases involving male witches in the duchy of Lorraine. Statistical breakdown shows that approximately 28% of the samples were males, who did not fare any better before the courts than the women did. It is shown that male witches were involved in rather more exceptional cases than the female ones. Nevertheless, many of them came from the same category of the dependent peasantry as the great majority of female witches, while a high proportion belonged to families with existing reputations for witchcraft. The most obvious and predictable difference from female suspects where accusations were concerned was the rarity of charges about the misfortunes of babies and small children, although this was not in total absence and the problems of the latter were occasionally blamed on men.Less

Male Witches

Robin Briggs

Published in print: 2007-11-01

This chapter discusses cases involving male witches in the duchy of Lorraine. Statistical breakdown shows that approximately 28% of the samples were males, who did not fare any better before the courts than the women did. It is shown that male witches were involved in rather more exceptional cases than the female ones. Nevertheless, many of them came from the same category of the dependent peasantry as the great majority of female witches, while a high proportion belonged to families with existing reputations for witchcraft. The most obvious and predictable difference from female suspects where accusations were concerned was the rarity of charges about the misfortunes of babies and small children, although this was not in total absence and the problems of the latter were occasionally blamed on men.

This book analyses the beliefs, social tensions, and behaviour patterns underlying popular attitudes to witchcraft. Based on perhaps the richest surviving archive of witchcraft trials to be found in ...
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This book analyses the beliefs, social tensions, and behaviour patterns underlying popular attitudes to witchcraft. Based on perhaps the richest surviving archive of witchcraft trials to be found in Europe, this book reveals the extraordinary stories held within those documents. They paint a vivid picture of life amongst the ordinary people of a small duchy on the borders of France and the Holy Roman Empire. Intense persecution occurred in the period 1570-1630, but the focus of this book is more on how suspects interacted with their neighbours over the years preceding their trials. One of the mysteries is why people were so slow to use the law to eliminate these supposedly vicious and dangerous figures. Perhaps the most striking and unexpected conclusion is that witchcraft was actually perceived as having strong therapeutic possibilities; once a person was identified as the cause of a sickness, they could be induced to take it off again. Other aspects studied include the more fantastic beliefs in sabbats, shapeshifting, and werewolves, the role of the devins or cunning-folk, and the characteristics attributed to the significant proportion of male witches.Less

The Witches of Lorraine

Robin Briggs

Published in print: 2007-11-01

This book analyses the beliefs, social tensions, and behaviour patterns underlying popular attitudes to witchcraft. Based on perhaps the richest surviving archive of witchcraft trials to be found in Europe, this book reveals the extraordinary stories held within those documents. They paint a vivid picture of life amongst the ordinary people of a small duchy on the borders of France and the Holy Roman Empire. Intense persecution occurred in the period 1570-1630, but the focus of this book is more on how suspects interacted with their neighbours over the years preceding their trials. One of the mysteries is why people were so slow to use the law to eliminate these supposedly vicious and dangerous figures. Perhaps the most striking and unexpected conclusion is that witchcraft was actually perceived as having strong therapeutic possibilities; once a person was identified as the cause of a sickness, they could be induced to take it off again. Other aspects studied include the more fantastic beliefs in sabbats, shapeshifting, and werewolves, the role of the devins or cunning-folk, and the characteristics attributed to the significant proportion of male witches.

This chapter attempts to clarify the importance of the connections between witches and fairies coupled with their deep roots in pagan and Greco-Roman beliefs by moving away from western Europe to ...
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This chapter attempts to clarify the importance of the connections between witches and fairies coupled with their deep roots in pagan and Greco-Roman beliefs by moving away from western Europe to look at the great witch Baba Yaga of Slavic countries. It cites three reasons for concentrating on Baba Yaga and Slavic fairy tales. The first one regards neglect. For the most part, the focus of folklore and fairy-tale studies in the United States and western Europe has been on the works of the Brothers Grimm and other notable western European writers and folklorist. The second is to understand the relationship between goddesses, witches, and fairies. The third reason is that a brief analysis of Baba Yaga tales with a focus on the neglected work Russian Folk Tales (1873), translated and edited by W.R.S. Ralston (1828–89), might assist us in grasping how oral and literary traditions work together to reinforce the memetic replication of fairy tales.Less

Witch as Fairy/Fairy as Witch: Unfathomable Baba Yagas

Jack Zipes

Published in print: 2012-04-08

This chapter attempts to clarify the importance of the connections between witches and fairies coupled with their deep roots in pagan and Greco-Roman beliefs by moving away from western Europe to look at the great witch Baba Yaga of Slavic countries. It cites three reasons for concentrating on Baba Yaga and Slavic fairy tales. The first one regards neglect. For the most part, the focus of folklore and fairy-tale studies in the United States and western Europe has been on the works of the Brothers Grimm and other notable western European writers and folklorist. The second is to understand the relationship between goddesses, witches, and fairies. The third reason is that a brief analysis of Baba Yaga tales with a focus on the neglected work Russian Folk Tales (1873), translated and edited by W.R.S. Ralston (1828–89), might assist us in grasping how oral and literary traditions work together to reinforce the memetic replication of fairy tales.

The pods of the tropical plant cacao, Theobroma cacao, are the source of chocolate. This crop is afflicted by a multitude of fungal diseases, including witches’ broom, frosty pod rot, and black pod. ...
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The pods of the tropical plant cacao, Theobroma cacao, are the source of chocolate. This crop is afflicted by a multitude of fungal diseases, including witches’ broom, frosty pod rot, and black pod. Until the mid-1990s, Brazil was second only to Côte d’Ivoire in cacao production. But then, the witches’ broom fungus, Crinipellis perniciosa, arrived, devastated the cacao plantations in Bahia, and Brazil dropped to fifth place among the cacao producing nations. The story of cacao diseases involves intriguing twists and turns, both scientific and geopolitical, including contemporary concern about the deliberate introduction of plant pathogens as acts of bioterrorism.Less

The Chocaholic Mushroom

Nicholas P. Money

Published in print: 2006-09-21

The pods of the tropical plant cacao, Theobroma cacao, are the source of chocolate. This crop is afflicted by a multitude of fungal diseases, including witches’ broom, frosty pod rot, and black pod. Until the mid-1990s, Brazil was second only to Côte d’Ivoire in cacao production. But then, the witches’ broom fungus, Crinipellis perniciosa, arrived, devastated the cacao plantations in Bahia, and Brazil dropped to fifth place among the cacao producing nations. The story of cacao diseases involves intriguing twists and turns, both scientific and geopolitical, including contemporary concern about the deliberate introduction of plant pathogens as acts of bioterrorism.

In Poland, the imagined witch was constructed in legal texts and in demonological literature. Witchcraft was illegal under the Saxon Law used by Polish town courts from medieval times, but no state ...
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In Poland, the imagined witch was constructed in legal texts and in demonological literature. Witchcraft was illegal under the Saxon Law used by Polish town courts from medieval times, but no state edict ever defined witchcraft or clarified the law. In the late sixteenth century the influence of the Carolina, and of western legal theory made witchcraft a more serious crime than it had been before. The Malleus Maleficarum was translated into Polish in the early seventeenth century. Ribald drama, satires, and a body of Catholic polemical literature fleshed out the image of the witch and opposed secular-court trials. In the late eighteenth century, members of the Polish Enlightenment opposed witch-trials and finally brought about their abolition, in 1776.Less

Imagining Witchcraft in Literature and Law

Michael Ostling

Published in print: 2011-11-01

In Poland, the imagined witch was constructed in legal texts and in demonological literature. Witchcraft was illegal under the Saxon Law used by Polish town courts from medieval times, but no state edict ever defined witchcraft or clarified the law. In the late sixteenth century the influence of the Carolina, and of western legal theory made witchcraft a more serious crime than it had been before. The Malleus Maleficarum was translated into Polish in the early seventeenth century. Ribald drama, satires, and a body of Catholic polemical literature fleshed out the image of the witch and opposed secular-court trials. In the late eighteenth century, members of the Polish Enlightenment opposed witch-trials and finally brought about their abolition, in 1776.

An account is given of the slow reforming changes that occurred in the Catholic Church in Europe in the eighteenth century, before the Enlightenment. The Church of that time still mingled magic with ...
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An account is given of the slow reforming changes that occurred in the Catholic Church in Europe in the eighteenth century, before the Enlightenment. The Church of that time still mingled magic with religion, and this was fostered by materialistic moments in the cult of saints, certain forms of faith‐healing, the use of holy objects such as relics or Biblical texts in the manner of charms, the more superstitious goals of pilgrimage, and the crudities of a mental haze about indulgences. Witches became less persecuted, Jews less uncomfortable, science began to play a part in everyday life, historians began to criticize saints, sanctuaries became less important, public opinion moved against the mendicant and beggar, and educated opinion became more confident in assailing the ‘childish’ (cults, symbolism, etc.) in the Church. The congregation became weightier in the structure of worship, there were sporadic attempts to make people understand by the use of readings in the vernacular or Bible reading by laymen, to revive the communion at its proper place in the liturgy, and some forms of Church music were popularized.Less

The Religion of the People

Owen Chadwick

Published in print: 1980-03-05

An account is given of the slow reforming changes that occurred in the Catholic Church in Europe in the eighteenth century, before the Enlightenment. The Church of that time still mingled magic with religion, and this was fostered by materialistic moments in the cult of saints, certain forms of faith‐healing, the use of holy objects such as relics or Biblical texts in the manner of charms, the more superstitious goals of pilgrimage, and the crudities of a mental haze about indulgences. Witches became less persecuted, Jews less uncomfortable, science began to play a part in everyday life, historians began to criticize saints, sanctuaries became less important, public opinion moved against the mendicant and beggar, and educated opinion became more confident in assailing the ‘childish’ (cults, symbolism, etc.) in the Church. The congregation became weightier in the structure of worship, there were sporadic attempts to make people understand by the use of readings in the vernacular or Bible reading by laymen, to revive the communion at its proper place in the liturgy, and some forms of Church music were popularized.

The Malleus Maleficarum is one of the best-known treatises dealing with the problem of what to do with witches. Written in 1487 by a Dominican inquisitor, Heinrich Institoris, following his failure ...
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The Malleus Maleficarum is one of the best-known treatises dealing with the problem of what to do with witches. Written in 1487 by a Dominican inquisitor, Heinrich Institoris, following his failure to prosecute a number of women for witchcraft, it is in many ways a highly personal document, full of frustration at official complacency in the face of a spiritual threat, as well as being a practical guide for law-officers who have to deal with a cunning, dangerous enemy. Combining theological discussion, illustrative anecdotes and useful advice for those involved in suppressing witchcraft, the treatise's influence on witchcraft studies has been extensive. The only previous translation into English, that by Montague Summers in 1928, is full of inaccuracies. It is written in a style almost unreadable nowadays, and is unfortunately coloured by Institoris's personal agenda. This new edited translation, with an introductory essay setting witchcraft, Institoris and the Malleus into clear English, corrects Summers' mistakes and offers an unvarnished version of what Institoris actually wrote. It will undoubtedly become the standard translation of this controversial late medieval text.Less

The Malleus Maleficarum and the construction of witchcraft

Heinrich Institoris

Published in print: 2003-11-13

The Malleus Maleficarum is one of the best-known treatises dealing with the problem of what to do with witches. Written in 1487 by a Dominican inquisitor, Heinrich Institoris, following his failure to prosecute a number of women for witchcraft, it is in many ways a highly personal document, full of frustration at official complacency in the face of a spiritual threat, as well as being a practical guide for law-officers who have to deal with a cunning, dangerous enemy. Combining theological discussion, illustrative anecdotes and useful advice for those involved in suppressing witchcraft, the treatise's influence on witchcraft studies has been extensive. The only previous translation into English, that by Montague Summers in 1928, is full of inaccuracies. It is written in a style almost unreadable nowadays, and is unfortunately coloured by Institoris's personal agenda. This new edited translation, with an introductory essay setting witchcraft, Institoris and the Malleus into clear English, corrects Summers' mistakes and offers an unvarnished version of what Institoris actually wrote. It will undoubtedly become the standard translation of this controversial late medieval text.

The contemporary religion of witchcraft features a lively and dynamic ritual repertoire centered on nature. Participants in witchcraft rituals acknowledge the turning wheel of the seasons of the year ...
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The contemporary religion of witchcraft features a lively and dynamic ritual repertoire centered on nature. Participants in witchcraft rituals acknowledge the turning wheel of the seasons of the year and the seasons of their own lives. Contemporary witchcraft encompasses numerous formal and informal groups. One of the best known, the Reclaiming Tradition, is a US-based international tradition focusing on the Goddess in Her multiple forms. This tradition includes both women and men, connects spirituality and politics, and focuses on healing the culture and the earth. Reclaiming holds annual camps across the country where witches come together for training and for collective ritual. Healing is often a focus of the witch camp's large rituals, as well as being the focus of much ritual activity outside of the camp setting. Many witches see healing as creating connections and connections as healing.Less

: Healing in Feminist Wicca

Grove Harris

Published in print: 2004-12-30

The contemporary religion of witchcraft features a lively and dynamic ritual repertoire centered on nature. Participants in witchcraft rituals acknowledge the turning wheel of the seasons of the year and the seasons of their own lives. Contemporary witchcraft encompasses numerous formal and informal groups. One of the best known, the Reclaiming Tradition, is a US-based international tradition focusing on the Goddess in Her multiple forms. This tradition includes both women and men, connects spirituality and politics, and focuses on healing the culture and the earth. Reclaiming holds annual camps across the country where witches come together for training and for collective ritual. Healing is often a focus of the witch camp's large rituals, as well as being the focus of much ritual activity outside of the camp setting. Many witches see healing as creating connections and connections as healing.

This chapter focuses on The Masque of Queens, which formally introduces the theory of antimasque to the English audience. The masque can be seen as a pivotal work in Jonson's career: crowning the ...
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This chapter focuses on The Masque of Queens, which formally introduces the theory of antimasque to the English audience. The masque can be seen as a pivotal work in Jonson's career: crowning the experimentalism of the earlier masques with a new firmness of technique and execution at the same time as it paved the way for the new, more ‘dramatic’, concept of masque that formed the focus of his experimentation before the publication of the 1616 Folio. Its ‘fable’ and overall shape are comparatively simple. The whole clearly breaks into two main sections: the antimasque (which extends to 1. 254; MQ,1. 343), and the masque itself (11.255– 372; MQ, 11.367–773). The fact that the antimasque is concerned with the machinations of twelve witches who plan to bring chaos into a world bereft of virtue, while the masque proper frightens the witches away by the appearance of twelve famous and virtuous Queens, may perhaps alert us – even at this stage – to the possible symbolic correspondence of line number and character number, since the line total for the whole masque (372 lines of spoken and sung text) submits to simple division by twelve (12 × 31).Less

The Masque of Queens, 1609

A. W. Johnson

Published in print: 1995-01-26

This chapter focuses on The Masque of Queens, which formally introduces the theory of antimasque to the English audience. The masque can be seen as a pivotal work in Jonson's career: crowning the experimentalism of the earlier masques with a new firmness of technique and execution at the same time as it paved the way for the new, more ‘dramatic’, concept of masque that formed the focus of his experimentation before the publication of the 1616 Folio. Its ‘fable’ and overall shape are comparatively simple. The whole clearly breaks into two main sections: the antimasque (which extends to 1. 254; MQ,1. 343), and the masque itself (11.255– 372; MQ, 11.367–773). The fact that the antimasque is concerned with the machinations of twelve witches who plan to bring chaos into a world bereft of virtue, while the masque proper frightens the witches away by the appearance of twelve famous and virtuous Queens, may perhaps alert us – even at this stage – to the possible symbolic correspondence of line number and character number, since the line total for the whole masque (372 lines of spoken and sung text) submits to simple division by twelve (12 × 31).

The authority afforded to women in early modern Galicia was shaped and perpetuated through local folklore and legends. Over the centuries, Galicians formulated a wide variety of images of powerful ...
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The authority afforded to women in early modern Galicia was shaped and perpetuated through local folklore and legends. Over the centuries, Galicians formulated a wide variety of images of powerful women from Reina Loba, who according to legend, permitted the Christianization of the region, to María Pita to whom they attribute the valiant defense of the city of A Coruña against British forces. Popular saints' lives were reformulated to reflect the region's gender norms. Long-standing beliefs in the power of witches in the region reveal significant gender tensions in a culture so reliant on female power. The cultural images of powerful women reiterated in local legends and songs not only provided role models for female behavior, but also perpetuated notions of female authority during periods of demographic and economic change.Less

Modelling Female Authority

Allyson M. Poska

Published in print: 2005-12-08

The authority afforded to women in early modern Galicia was shaped and perpetuated through local folklore and legends. Over the centuries, Galicians formulated a wide variety of images of powerful women from Reina Loba, who according to legend, permitted the Christianization of the region, to María Pita to whom they attribute the valiant defense of the city of A Coruña against British forces. Popular saints' lives were reformulated to reflect the region's gender norms. Long-standing beliefs in the power of witches in the region reveal significant gender tensions in a culture so reliant on female power. The cultural images of powerful women reiterated in local legends and songs not only provided role models for female behavior, but also perpetuated notions of female authority during periods of demographic and economic change.

This chapter discusses the common people in Scotland, and particularly certain groups whose encounter with government proved memorable. A ‘new violence of the state’ emerged in certain policies of ...
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This chapter discusses the common people in Scotland, and particularly certain groups whose encounter with government proved memorable. A ‘new violence of the state’ emerged in certain policies of central government. It was clear, even commonplace, that the law was made by and for the landed ruling class. This gave them both responsibilities and privileges. Nobles, because they possessed honour, had to be treated with special respect by the law. Much of the most visible government activity affected only the men with ‘fame and honour’, the political elite. That elite has been estimated to comprise about 5,000 landlords, plus a further number of lawyers, officials, ministers, and greater burgesses. This chapter examines how government was experienced by the common people, the ones who lacked ‘fame and honour’, and how they were affected by laws. The focus is on the peasants in the countryside, women at all social levels, and some marginalised groups, particularly witches and gypsies, who were singled out for particular governmental attention.Less

Government and People

Julian Goodare

Published in print: 2004-10-14

This chapter discusses the common people in Scotland, and particularly certain groups whose encounter with government proved memorable. A ‘new violence of the state’ emerged in certain policies of central government. It was clear, even commonplace, that the law was made by and for the landed ruling class. This gave them both responsibilities and privileges. Nobles, because they possessed honour, had to be treated with special respect by the law. Much of the most visible government activity affected only the men with ‘fame and honour’, the political elite. That elite has been estimated to comprise about 5,000 landlords, plus a further number of lawyers, officials, ministers, and greater burgesses. This chapter examines how government was experienced by the common people, the ones who lacked ‘fame and honour’, and how they were affected by laws. The focus is on the peasants in the countryside, women at all social levels, and some marginalised groups, particularly witches and gypsies, who were singled out for particular governmental attention.

This chapter focuses on witchcraft beliefs. Topics covered include methods used to identify witches, strange creatures in witchcraft cases, cases of individuals terrified by a strange hostile ...
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This chapter focuses on witchcraft beliefs. Topics covered include methods used to identify witches, strange creatures in witchcraft cases, cases of individuals terrified by a strange hostile presence, seductions by the devil and in the sabbat, and dreams and fantasies.Less

Fantasies of Evil: Shapeshifting and Sabbats

Robin Briggs

Published in print: 2007-11-01

This chapter focuses on witchcraft beliefs. Topics covered include methods used to identify witches, strange creatures in witchcraft cases, cases of individuals terrified by a strange hostile presence, seductions by the devil and in the sabbat, and dreams and fantasies.

This chapter discusses the importance of reputations in the construction of the witch, or in the minds of those who appeared as witnesses. Topics covered include times and places for rumour and ...
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This chapter discusses the importance of reputations in the construction of the witch, or in the minds of those who appeared as witnesses. Topics covered include times and places for rumour and gossip, families at risk, social memory and testimony, healing witches, and restraints on persecution.Less

Reputations and Communal Interactions

Robin Briggs

Published in print: 2007-11-01

This chapter discusses the importance of reputations in the construction of the witch, or in the minds of those who appeared as witnesses. Topics covered include times and places for rumour and gossip, families at risk, social memory and testimony, healing witches, and restraints on persecution.

This chapter focuses on the lives of individuals sometimes called ‘white witches’, men and women who formed part of a ragged and disorganized phenomenon which historians of early modern medicine now ...
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This chapter focuses on the lives of individuals sometimes called ‘white witches’, men and women who formed part of a ragged and disorganized phenomenon which historians of early modern medicine now call the ‘medical market-place’, an array of practitioners ranging from university-trained physicians to villagers credited with some modest gift for healing. Topics discussed include clergy, lawyer, and doctor involvement in cases; popular medical practitioners and devins; life stories of the six most active practitioners who were tried for witchcraft; the healer Nicolas Noel le Bragard; and magical healing and conceptions of illness.Less

Witch‐Finders, Witchdoctors, and Healers

Robin Briggs

Published in print: 2007-11-01

This chapter focuses on the lives of individuals sometimes called ‘white witches’, men and women who formed part of a ragged and disorganized phenomenon which historians of early modern medicine now call the ‘medical market-place’, an array of practitioners ranging from university-trained physicians to villagers credited with some modest gift for healing. Topics discussed include clergy, lawyer, and doctor involvement in cases; popular medical practitioners and devins; life stories of the six most active practitioners who were tried for witchcraft; the healer Nicolas Noel le Bragard; and magical healing and conceptions of illness.

This chapter focuses on witch trials Saint-Nicolas-de-Port. Trials from Saint-Nicolas began with the trial of Claudon Charniere, also known as la Picquatte on account of her first marriage to Martin ...
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This chapter focuses on witch trials Saint-Nicolas-de-Port. Trials from Saint-Nicolas began with the trial of Claudon Charniere, also known as la Picquatte on account of her first marriage to Martin Picquot, in the autumn of 1572. Another trial began with a public accusation in July 1582 by a young married woman named Mongeatte Recouvreur, who was said to be going about the streets as if demented. Trials Saint-Nicolas appears then passed through the hard times of the late 1580s and early 1590s without any formal accusations, until a new group of trials began in 1598. Altogether the town saw nineteen known witchcraft trials over a period of fifty-six years, fifteen of which have left full records, with all but one of the accused being women.Less

Urban Witches: Saint‐Nicolas‐de‐Port and Other Towns

Robin Briggs

Published in print: 2007-11-01

This chapter focuses on witch trials Saint-Nicolas-de-Port. Trials from Saint-Nicolas began with the trial of Claudon Charniere, also known as la Picquatte on account of her first marriage to Martin Picquot, in the autumn of 1572. Another trial began with a public accusation in July 1582 by a young married woman named Mongeatte Recouvreur, who was said to be going about the streets as if demented. Trials Saint-Nicolas appears then passed through the hard times of the late 1580s and early 1590s without any formal accusations, until a new group of trials began in 1598. Altogether the town saw nineteen known witchcraft trials over a period of fifty-six years, fifteen of which have left full records, with all but one of the accused being women.

This concluding chapter presents a synthesis of the preceding chapters. It argues that in relative terms, the Lorraine persecution was very intense, placing the duchy near the head of any European ...
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This concluding chapter presents a synthesis of the preceding chapters. It argues that in relative terms, the Lorraine persecution was very intense, placing the duchy near the head of any European league table in terms of both absolute numbers and the proportion of the population involved. The high rate of persecution between 1570 and 1630 was essentially generated by a dispersed and intermittent process at the level of individual jurisdictions.Less

Conclusion

Robin Briggs

Published in print: 2007-11-01

This concluding chapter presents a synthesis of the preceding chapters. It argues that in relative terms, the Lorraine persecution was very intense, placing the duchy near the head of any European league table in terms of both absolute numbers and the proportion of the population involved. The high rate of persecution between 1570 and 1630 was essentially generated by a dispersed and intermittent process at the level of individual jurisdictions.

This chapter sums up the key findings of this study on the disavowal of witchcraft belief in England during the 18th century. The analysis reveals that in both England and France, witchcraft theory ...
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This chapter sums up the key findings of this study on the disavowal of witchcraft belief in England during the 18th century. The analysis reveals that in both England and France, witchcraft theory did not have to be radically rejected in order to secure an end to the trials and that the most effective panacea was caution. This chapter also mentions witchcraft belief and witch-hunting in other European countries including Germany and Spain.Less

Conclusion

Ian Bostridge

Published in print: 1997-03-27

This chapter sums up the key findings of this study on the disavowal of witchcraft belief in England during the 18th century. The analysis reveals that in both England and France, witchcraft theory did not have to be radically rejected in order to secure an end to the trials and that the most effective panacea was caution. This chapter also mentions witchcraft belief and witch-hunting in other European countries including Germany and Spain.

This Introduction situates the imagination of witchcraft in early modern Poland using the image of the crossroads: the witch combines elements taken from elite culture and from local folklore, from ...
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This Introduction situates the imagination of witchcraft in early modern Poland using the image of the crossroads: the witch combines elements taken from elite culture and from local folklore, from the center and periphery of European culture. The chapter also locates this study in time and space: it is a study of witchcraft and witch-trials in the Korona, the Polish part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, in the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries.Less

At the Crossroads

Michael Ostling

Published in print: 2011-11-01

This Introduction situates the imagination of witchcraft in early modern Poland using the image of the crossroads: the witch combines elements taken from elite culture and from local folklore, from the center and periphery of European culture. The chapter also locates this study in time and space: it is a study of witchcraft and witch-trials in the Korona, the Polish part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, in the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries.

The historiography of witchcraft tends to see confessions to diabolical sex as clear examples that accused witches were forced to adopt the ‘demonological script’. However, a close reading of the ...
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The historiography of witchcraft tends to see confessions to diabolical sex as clear examples that accused witches were forced to adopt the ‘demonological script’. However, a close reading of the trials indicates that accused witches sought to minimize their sexual contact with devils, and emphasized that such contact was painful and unpleasant due to the devil’s ‘cold member’. This suggests that accused witches tried to maintain some control of their stories: they might be quarrelsome and spiteful, but they were not promiscuous—might be imagined as witches, but not as whores. However, some confessions ‘indigenized’ diabolical sex, assimilating it to the folkloric figure of the latawiec—part unbaptized infant, part treasure-hauling demon, part erotic fairy-youth.Less

Demon Lovers

Michael Ostling

Published in print: 2011-11-01

The historiography of witchcraft tends to see confessions to diabolical sex as clear examples that accused witches were forced to adopt the ‘demonological script’. However, a close reading of the trials indicates that accused witches sought to minimize their sexual contact with devils, and emphasized that such contact was painful and unpleasant due to the devil’s ‘cold member’. This suggests that accused witches tried to maintain some control of their stories: they might be quarrelsome and spiteful, but they were not promiscuous—might be imagined as witches, but not as whores. However, some confessions ‘indigenized’ diabolical sex, assimilating it to the folkloric figure of the latawiec—part unbaptized infant, part treasure-hauling demon, part erotic fairy-youth.